Conquest of the Horde

Hello thar CotHites. Let's talk about characters and psychological disorders. Now, I know they (and the related problems) aren't seen much on the server, but they're one of my special pet peeves. I'm not telling people not to play them - in fact, I hope this guide will encourage people to play with better realism.

Mental Disorders and You

Let's start off with a list, shall we? Maybe a few common misconceptions? (Scroll down if you want to skip right to my summaries of how to play them well. List of better-known disorders and their symptoms coming soon.)

Common Misconceptions.

1. True insanity makes people random.

This one's pretty common. If you assume that someone's mind - especially their logic - works in different ways, then how do you convey that fact? Making them flat-out random and eccentric, that's how. It's even a staple in the media.
There is NO disorder which makes people act like that. The best way to combat it is take a closer look at all of the possible problems out there. They all have pretty distinctive symptoms, right? Think it out. Get specific. Do research if you really want to have a well-done character.

2. Amnesia can be caused by a blow to the head.

All right, not a disorder but I still had to include it.
If you've had a concussion, you may have ended up with a bit of temporary amnesia, which just goes to show how those misconceptions can start. Amnesia is usually caused by damage OVER TIME, from trauma inside the skull, diseases/infections, or insufficient blood flow. The real problems here are diseases which attack brain tissue. They're the worst for causing it. Concussions can give you some funny abnormalities, but usually nothing long-lasting. (They can still cause trauma, but that's a story for another day.)

3. People who have psychological disorders act 'different'/have obvious problems.

This is a tricky one to confront. On one hand, mental disorders can impair thinking and judgment, and make it difficult for a person to have a normal day-to-day life. But on the other, there are lots of people who can get along without anyone else noticing anything odd. The problem here is that the dramatic cases overshadow the everyday ones. In general, you want to assume that anyone with a disorder is perfectly capable of managing their own life. They aren't all raving lunatics, which leads me to my next point...

4. People with psychological disorders are violent/dangerous.

Two words: fel no. Violence isn't common at all. It's another example of the dramatic cases overshadowing the normal ones. Please, don't judge the majority on the basis of the minority. Need I say more on the subject?

5. Schizophrenia means that you have multiple personalities.

I've seen a lot of this one. This is probably because showing those multiple personalities is the easiest way to convey that something's wrong. Anyhow - on the simplest level, schizophrenia jumbles up the thought process, making it difficult for a sufferer to think logically or even along the same lines as a 'normal' person. Hallucinations, paranoia, and delusions are also common symptoms. Sometimes, it will also affect emotions (prevent the sufferer from experiencing pleasure/happiness, and reduce motivation). It has nothing to do with multiple personalities whatsoever.

If you're still curious, the mental disorder involving multiple personalities is Dissociative identity disorder (also known as Multiple personality disorder, for obvious reasons :B).

6. Depression, anxiety, and eating disorders aren't 'real' disorders.

All of them are real, and depending on their severity, can vary from being a hindrance, to being debilitating and actively dangerous. And yeah, I lumped them under the same generalization.

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So, what can I do to portray it well?

That's not to say you can't play a character with a problem. Far from it! All you need to do is be willing to learn, and keep a few points in mind.

1. Research, research, research.

I literally CAN'T stress this enough. If you don't want to go into depth, then that's fine. Just knowing the basics will be enough to prevent you from making mistakes. Remember, this is still a delicate topic - you should do it justice. As long as you stay willing to learn, you'll do fine.

2. Know that one symptom doesn't make a disorder.

Once in a while, I hear about characters which have single problems. Maybe they hallucinate? Maybe they have multiple personalities? Maybe they can't form bonds with other people? Please don't pick out the "cool" stuff and leave the rest. Frankly, if there's just one symptom out of many, I'm more likely to write it off as being part of their personality. Which leads into my next point...

3. Don't use your character's status as a crutch.

Seriously, don't. Don't use one instead of giving the character real depth, in particular.
And if someone's using a disorder as an excuse for why they can't do X or Y (or why they should be excused for conduct which would get anyone else punished), then it's definitely being misrepresented. Same thing for trying to get attention: there are better, less controversial ways of doing it.

A handy way to know if you're guilty of this is ask yourself as you're playing - do you think people should pay more attention to your character because of their problem? Do you think that they deserve special treatment, especially during run-ins with authority?

4. DO use it for character development.

Isn't it terrific when a character has a real problem, and actually learns or changes from the outcome? Any obstacle plunked down into a person's path is an amazing way to show how they really operate. You get to see an entire new side of them which was never visible before. And if handled well by the player, those trials can be both realistic and fascinating.

5. Everyone's different.

So, after I've finished my tirade about how not to misrepresent.. it's important to add that you don't have to follow a textbook example of whatever it is you're representing. People's personalities and histories all affect their disorders in logical ways. Feel free to experiment until you find a combination which suits you and your character.



There! Anyone who'd like to post feedback or suggest things to add is welcome to do so.

I was working on a list of better-known disorders and their symptoms, but it was too long to finish. I'll do it later.

Haha! Nice.

This is a brilliant point. Personaly, i find disorders wonderful to roleplay...and very difficult.

OCD is an interesting one. Back on the payed servers, i played an Undead with OCD...That was hard, but rewarding. It made for fun roleplaying.

So yeah, it's a lot of work to do well, but do not be disheartened CotH! It can be done!

Excellent points, all of them - And I have one thing to add, myself:

For the love of god... INSANITY IS NOT A MENTAL ILLNESS. Insanity is a modern-day legal term used only as a possible legal defense, and it has no backing in the field of Psychology. "Insanity", as Etmosril has said, isn't just being random. A person can be completely random without having a single majorly maladaptive mental illness.

I have to apologize, but that's something that has really been biting at me for a while. :3

Excellent guide!

I would add "Don't over do it." or "Don't over-exaggerate the symptoms." I've made this mistake twice on Coth so far xD. In hindsight I wish I had started off with milder symptoms and let them worsen as needed. It just looks kind of funny/unnatural when you start off with heavy symptoms and then tone them down to a suitable level.

Also, the character needs to remain capable of socializing/interacting with others to some extent. It would be very difficult to play a character who is so paranoid that he wont speak to anyone, or so afraid to leave his abode that he is cut off from society. Yeah, that's kind of obvious but worth mentioning.

I remember one player who's character was afraid of wide open spaces. Perhaps it was just the way he played his character but this was more of an annoyance to me than anything else. Getting this character to go somewhere was always a hassle and it didn't really add much to the RP.

Cepht raises a very good point. You need to ask yourself why your giving this character a condition. If the answer is simply to make it the focus, the thing interesting and different about your character, then don't do it. Make your character interesting through some other means. You need to know why your doing it, and what it will bring to the roleplay to make it enjoyable, without it being a hindrance to the other players too much. Conflict can be interesting and fun, but constantly reassuring a depressed character, or constantly facepalming about an "unstable" character, isnt.

I am rather glad that this guide was put together, the points here are well made and do cover a wide variety of common misconceptions. I just have to say this, however, because it is very important to me. I absolutely abhor the use of mental illness as something to make a character interesting or different. Suffering from these problems, to be blunt, really sucks.

If you -must- play a character with some kind of mental illness, make sure you do your research and do not make a complete mockery of how these real people suffer everyday, some of them combating the ability to even get out of bed because they can't find a reason to fight the terrible fatigue they suffer through.

I would ask that most people try to avoid this kind of rp in general, because it -is- rather offensive if done inappropriately or incorrectly. The fact that people can find amusement in the suffering of others really pushes my buttons. At least with this guide, however, some of the important truths are getting out there. So I -do- appreciate that. Thank ye, Etmosril.

If I went off on a strange and crazy tangent there it is because this is a very personally relevant topic for me. This is, in no way, aimed at anyone in particular. Just food for thought to add to what has been said already.

I think both of those fall under number 3: Don't use character status as a crutch. But I will elaborate under that entry.



Edited to respond to Championmouse: I'll be sure to add that as part of my points. It's definitely a sensitive topic. I'd rather have a few more people roleplaying it well because they got curious and researched than an infrequent few playing it poorly.

I thought you handled it very well, I just was speaking my mind.

But <3's for you! :3

This is a brilliant guide. On a off topic note, the advertisement on the right was a The Top 10 Things to Know About Schizophrenia: Most Schizophrenics are not violent. Just made me laugh.

/Clap
Commendable thesis. I doff my hat to you, sir.

It's about time this was brought up, both OOCly and ICly. But mainly ICly. I've seen a borderline character that would have put a smile to my face, if I didn't know how poorly said character was played.


Then the same can be said about evil characters, loving characters, spacegoat characters...still. Good guide and I hope it'll be 1) moved and 2) read so that it brings...myah, massive knowledge to some of the less fortunate of the player base who RP insanity as being a random multi-tasking character. x.X

I'm going to ask my old co-moderator of a forum RP that takes place in an asylum, for permission to use her list of disorders and symptoms. Might be able to save you some time! Good work there!

Thanks. I'd really appreciate that.